Electron beam lithography technology has been used in the field of lithography in which a circuit pattern is exposed in a semiconductor (LSI) manufacturing process.
Electron beam lithography methods include various types of methods, among them is a multibeam lithography method in which a great number of beams are used to perform continuous scanning in one direction for drawing.
Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1 disclose a BAA system in which a blanker aperture array (BAA) is used in the multibeam lithography method. As illustrated in FIG. 3, this BAA system employs a lithography method in which a beam is first divided into a great number of discrete individual element beams, so that the great number of individual element beams are scanned continuously in one direction while independently being turned ON and OFF. Accordingly, a single drawing point on a resist is exposed by the great number of discrete individual element beams in an overlapping manner.